Learn how the new online release of Berkshire parish register images on Ancestry works alongside our accurate transcriptions to aid your research.
Discover how to decipher 16th to 18th-century wills and parish registers with a practical PDF guide to reading secretary hand script.
Discover how Alf Ison's classic guide helps you decode impenetrable 16th to 18th-century secretary hand and master historical family documents.
Discover the unique 1819 travel scroll of Speen's Harriet Parry, and learn how Berkshire parish records helped reconstruct her European adventures.
If you have an interest in historic Berkshire or a particular family, location, industry or transport system within it, you'll almost certainly want to attend this Fair. It is online, free to attend and brings together experts from across the historic county. There are two sessions 10 - 12 noon, and 2 - 3pm. You can attend either or both sessions.
Berkshire Family History Society works to meet the needs of those researching their ancestry across the UK and overseas – as well as those looking for former relatives in historic Berkshire. You do not need to be a member to benefit.
The society offers:
Research Zone in central Reading that is free to use and open to all
Free access at The Centre for Heritage and Family History to online resources like FindMyPast, the 1939 Register, The Genealogist, the British Newspaper Archive and Ancestry (the worldwide edition)
Regular free help and advice sessions
Meetings in Abingdon, Bracknell, Newbury, Reading and Windsor; and a virtual Computer Branch which meets online. All meetings are open to everyone
Community forum – informed answers to research queries and advice from experienced researchers
Members’ Area with data and other information not readily accessible elsewhere
Indexes and transcriptions of Berkshire’s historic records on CD — parish registers, probate documents, monumental inscriptions, maps, First World War history and more
Quarterly magazine, the Berkshire Family Historian, for members
a chance to join in project work, recording, transcribing and helping to preserve records
Links to the research experience, advice and support of members worldwide
